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Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Before I had Ellie, I knew logically that I wanted kids. I knew, logically, that that was the course I wanted for my life. But I was never a "baby person." I never got what the big deal was about babies. So when I had Ellie - I was blown away. I had no idea the daily joythat Ellie would bring me. Not just happiness, not just satisfaction - joy. Now, I don't just logically want more children. I want them in the way that you want candy bars or vacation days - I really, really want them. They are wonderful.

Yes, there are hard times. The first couple months were pretty hard - healing from labor, being away from most of our friends and family in St. George - but there were still many moments of joy.

And now, with Ellie at an amazingly fun age? I look forward to seeing her in the morning and playing with her all day. I am delighted with the things she learns, the sounds she makes, the toys she shoves in my mouth.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Jason and I went to Costco last night to stock up on formula for Ellie. (It is so cheap there, by the way. Literally half the price of the stuff at the grocery store. If you use formula, you might want to look into it.)

After we got the stuff that we needed, we wandered into the book section, and I found this!

This is Son by Lois Lowry, a 4th and final book to The Giver series

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Did you guys know that there was going to be a last book to this series? I DIDN'T! (I'M SHOUTING BECAUSE I'M SO SURPRISED AND EXCITED!) I thought she finished with this series years ago! I thought Messenger was the last book! And THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!

Friday, October 19, 2012

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a trip to the Santa Ana Zoo this week. It's a great little zoo. It's close to us, it's half price after 2 pm, and it has just enough animals that you can see them all before you get tired.

This was Ellie's very first trip to the zoo, and we were wondering if she'd even realize the animals were there. She did! She was definitely intrigued by a lot of the different animals. She had a really good time, and we did too.

(Here's Ellie intently studying the Bald Eagle. When I tried to pull
her away, I realized she had a solid grip on the fence. I had to tug her
off.)

Some of Ellie's favorite animals were:

- The ducks. Yes, the regular old ducks. She thought it was hilarious when Jason and I were saying "quack quack quack." She didn't even notice the howler monkeys in this same exhibit.

- The magpie geese. They were honking at us, and she was really interested in them.

- The squirrel monkey. She thought he was a lot funnier than all of the other monkeys for some reason. Santa Ana Zoo seriously has a lot of monkeys, but she liked this one the best.

-The trees in the aviary. Okay, so these aren't animals, but she liked them.

- The domestic geese. Her expression says it all.

(Also, they have this giant egg there.)

Where babies come from.

- The goats. There were a lot of them, and they were making their funny "Gaa-aa-aa" goat sound. She watched them for a couple minutes, then started yelling "Aaaaaah!" really loud. It was so funny. She was definitely imitating them. :)

(Oh, I love them.)

By the exit they had a couple bales of hay set up with some fake pumpkins, and we set Ellie down on them for a picture. She knocked this fake little pumpkin off by accident. Jason put it back. Ellie then got this funny/clever little expression on her face and whacked it off again. And again. And then fed it to Jason.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

My favorite day of the year, hands down, is October 14th. It's definitely the friendliest day of the year. It's just so warm and inviting. You can tell it likes you. And, amazingly enough, it also happens to be my birthday.

This year October 14th fell on a Sunday, so I naturally used that as an excuse to do fun stuff before, during, and after the actual day.

On Saturday, we tried to go to a church picnic with Sarah and Tyler.

We couldn't actually find the picnic, though (and never did), but we found some other cool stuff! For instance, we stumbled right upon a Renaissance fair. These guys dressed in full suits of armor were having sword fights, and they had all these tents set up, and we watched them for a while. Ellie thought they were really intriguing.

We also found this giant chili cook-off/car show/craft fair that we wandered around for a while. Afterwards, we got some food at Carl's Jr, ate it back at home, and then went to Yorba Regional Park.

And then we got a Pinata! (And at this point I just realized that I should mention that Tyler's birthday is this week, too. It was, in fact, on Tuesday. And so we were celebrating both of our birthdays). And filled it with a lot of candy. And then, because we had nowhere to hang it from, boxed it open with our hands. (We are hardcore pinata-ers.)

We finished off the day by watching a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 classic, Timechasers.

The next day was Sunday! We went to church in the morning. In the afternoon, Jason's mom cooked special birthday dinners for both me and Tyler. So we had roast beef and ribs. Mmm. It was so good. We had pie for desert. Tyler chose chocolate satin and I chose razzleberry, so that's what we all had. Mmm.

Me and Tyler pretending to blow out our birthday candles.

Jason preordered me the Lego Lord of the Rings PS3 video game. This was his way of telling me it's on its way (when it comes out in a couple weeks).

It was a great birthday weekend. We actually went to the zoo on Tuesday, too, as (kind of) part of the birthday festivities. It was Ellie's first time to the zoo, and it was fun. I'll post pictures soon. :)

Welcome to the record of our family's adventures! My name is Jocelyn. My husband Jason and I have been best friends ever since we started high school. We got married on April 23, 2010, in the Newport Beach Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in North Carolina with our beautiful little girls, Ellie, Zelda, and Susanna.